Advanced Bionics AG

An exemplary spatial enhancement system performs frequency-specific localization and speech comprehension enhancement. Specifically, the system receives an audio signal presented to a recipient of a hearing device, and generates, based on the audio signal, a first frequency signal and a second frequency signal. The first frequency signal includes a portion of the audio signal associated with a first frequency range, and the second frequency signal includes a portion of the audio signal associated with a second frequency range. Based on the first and second frequency signals, the system generates an output frequency signal that is associated with the first and second frequency ranges and that is configured for use by the hearing device in stimulating aural perception by the recipient. This generating of the output frequency signal includes processing the first frequency signal to apply a localization enhancement and processing the second frequency signal to apply a speech comprehension enhancement.

An exemplary spatial enhancement system performs frequency-specific localization and speech comprehension enhancement. Specifically, the system receives an audio signal presented to a recipient of a hearing device, and generates, based on the audio signal, a first frequency signal and a second frequency signal. The first frequency signal includes a portion of the audio signal associated with a first frequency range, and the second frequency signal includes a portion of the audio signal associated with a second frequency range. Based on the first and second frequency signals, the system generates an output frequency signal that is associated with the first and second frequency ranges and that is configured for use by the hearing device in stimulating aural perception by the recipient. This generating of the output frequency signal includes processing the first frequency signal to apply a localization enhancement and processing the second frequency signal to apply a speech comprehension enhancement.

A cochlear implant system includes a cochlear implant configured to be implanted within a patient and a sound processor communicatively coupled to the cochlear implant. The sound processor detects a unique identifier of the cochlear implant and establishes, by way of a network, an active network link with a remote computing system located remotely from the cochlear implant system. The sound processor transmits the unique identifier of the cochlear implant to the remote computing system over the active network link and, in response, receives data representative of a sound processing program associated with the cochlear implant from the remote computing system over the active network link. The sound processor stores the received data representative of the sound processing program on a local storage facility associated with the sound processor. Corresponding systems and methods are also disclosed.

An exemplary method includes a hearing performance prediction system aggregating a plurality of training examples, a training example in the plurality of training examples including a hearing aid dataset and a cochlear implant dataset associated with a user; and training a machine learning model using the plurality of training examples. The training may include computing, using the machine learning model, a predicted hearing performance for the user based on the hearing aid dataset of the user in the training example; computing a feedback value based on the predicted hearing performance of the user and the cochlear implant dataset of the user in the training example; and adjusting one or more model parameters of the machine learning model based on the feedback value.

An exemplary system is configured to maintain data representative a machine learning model for use in a cochlear implant system and train the machine learning model. The training may include applying audio content as a training input to the machine learning model, the machine learning model configured to apply a machine learning heuristic to the audio content to output an electrical signal representative of the audio content; applying the electrical signal to a brain processing model, the brain processing model configured to output synthesized audio content representative of the electrical signal; generating an error metric representative of a difference between the audio content and the synthesized audio content; and feeding back the error metric into the machine learning model, the machine learning model configured to use the error metric to adjust the machine learning heuristic applied to the audio content.

An exemplary spatial enhancement system performs frequency- specific localization and speech comprehension enhancement. Specifically, the system receives an audio signal presented to a recipient of a hearing device, and generates, based on the audio signal, a first frequency signal and a second frequency signal. The first frequency signal includes a portion of the audio signal associated with a first frequency range, and the second frequency signal includes a portion of the audio signal associated with a second frequency range. Based on the first and second frequency signals, the system generates an output frequency signal that is associated with the first and second frequency ranges and that is configured for use by the hearing device in stimulating aural perception by the recipient. This generating of the output frequency signal includes processing the first frequency signal to apply a localization enhancement and processing the second frequency signal to apply a speech comprehension enhancement.

A neural stimulation system comprises a microphone arrangement for capturing an audio signal from ambient sound, a sound processor unit, a headpiece, and an implantable neural stimulator, the sound processor unit comprising a housing to be worn behind a patient's ear or at a patient's body, and a signal processing unit within the sound processor unit housing for generating a neural stimulation signal from the captured audio signal, the sound processor being communicatively coupled to the headpiece for supplying the neural stimulation signal to the headpiece, the headpiece comprising a housing separate from the housing of the sound processor and to be fixed at the patient's head, a signal transmission unit for transmitting the neural stimulation signal to a signal receiving unit of the implantable cochlear stimulator, and a user interface for controlling operation of the sound processor unit.

A cochlear implant system includes a cochlear implant configured to be implanted within a patient and a sound processor communicatively coupled to the cochlear implant. The sound processor detects a unique identifier of the cochlear implant and establishes, by way of a network, an active network link with a remote computing system located remotely from the cochlear implant system. The sound processor transmits the unique identifier of the cochlear implant to the remote computing system over the active network link and, in response, receives data representative of a sound processing program associated with the cochlear implant from the remote computing system over the active network link. The sound processor stores the received data representative of the sound processing program on a local storage facility associated with the sound processor. Corresponding systems and methods are also disclosed.

Apparatus and methods for converting one type of speech processor unit into another type of speech processor unit.

A sound processor assembly included within a cochlear implant system includes a sound processor and a battery assembly. The sound processor includes a physical computing device configured to direct operation of a cochlear implant in accordance with a sound processing program associated with a cochlear implant implanted within a patient. The battery assembly includes an electric battery configured to provide electrical power to the sound processor, as well as a storage facility configured to store the sound processing program associated with the cochlear implant. The storage facility is integrated with the electric battery within the battery assembly. The sound processor assembly also includes a bidirectional communication interface communicatively coupling the battery assembly to the sound processor to allow the sound processor to store data to, and to retrieve stored data from, the storage facility of the battery assembly by way of the bidirectional communication interface. Corresponding methods are also disclosed.